* * * * *
“I’m giving you a present every day,” I muttered to the mattress, heard my husband’s chuckle then I felt his hand glide light over the curve of my behind.
Then I felt his lips brush the skin of my hip, they disappeared and I felt them touch my neck then, in my ear, he whispered, “Thank you, my wee Finnie, I’ll treasure him.”
He would treasure his dragon.
I closed my eyes, felt happiness wash through me, turned my head, opened my eyes and smiled at my husband.
“You’re welcome, my handsome husband,” I whispered back.
His eyes went soft and he smiled back, sweet and gentle, leaned in, kissed my temple then moved from the bed, throwing the covers over me.
He’d already dressed and come back to kiss me before he went to his own bath and now I watched him walk to the door. He unbolted it, unlocked it and threw it open while I sighed contentedly.
All four of my girls were standing outside.
“Have a courier deliver the box on the dresser to my ship in Sudvic without delay. Its contents are fragile so tell him if I see even the barest crack in the glass, he’ll answer to me. Also tell him to instruct Skylar that I want it mounted in my cabin before Finnie and I arrive tomorrow,” Frey commanded, all four of them stared up at him with mouths open then Esther finally nodded, peeled off and disappeared.
I smiled yet again.
He so totally treasured his dragon.
Frey turned back to me.
“I’ll be back to escort you to the Gales, wife,” he called.
I pushed lethargically up on both forearms and called back, “Awesome, husband.”
He shook his head and grinned. Then he disappeared.
My girls rushed in with Bess closing the door.
Then they all stopped four feet from the bed and stared at me.
“Hey ladies,” I greeted, totally not caring I was naked and in bed and had obviously been thoroughly and vigorously laid by my hot, virile husband who seriously liked my present.
They all kept staring at me.
Finally, Jocelyn stated, “Balls to ten minutes.”
She was right. Ten minutes were over about an hour ago.
I burst out laughing.
As I knew they would, they joined me.
Then Alyssa rushed to my dressing room and came back with my robe. I struggled to put it on under the covers as I heard water sloshing next door.
Time for a bath.
Then the Gales.
Then, tomorrow, adventure.
Chapter Eighteen
Bitter Gales
“Hurry Esther, The Drakkar has been waiting in the bedroom for twenty minutes,” Bess hissed urgently at Esther, who was twisting, curling and pinning up my hair. “I just walked through and there’s no mistaking he’s getting impatient.”
Ho boy. That probably wasn’t good.
“How much time do you need, Esther?” I asked.
“Ten to do your hair and ten to get you dressed,” Esther answered.
“Can we cut that in half?” I requested thinking of a Frey who was not hiding his impatience which could mean bad things.
“We’ll do our best,” Jocelyn decided. “Here, lift your foot. We’ll put your shoes and jewelry on and then, when Esther’s done, we can just add the dress.”
I nodded to Jocelyn and lifted my foot as she kneeled on the floor in front me and I said to Bess, “Tell him ten more minutes.”
She looked like she wanted to tell Frey he had to wait ten more minutes like she wanted her fingernails to be pulled out at the roots.
So I said gently, “Tell him I said that, honey.”
She nodded and took off and Jocelyn shoved on the other shoe while Alyssa came forward with my necklace.
It was crazy and at first I thought way over the top but honestly, being a princess, you totally needed four maidservants.
“I can’t wait to see The Drakkar’s expression when he gets a look at you,” Alyssa breathed as she carefully dodged Esther and put on my necklace.
“Me either,” Esther muttered.
“When he sees you, I hope he actually takes you to the Gales and not back to bed, like he did when he saw your underwear,” Jocelyn remarked, moving away to get my earrings, “it would be a pity we spent all that time teaching you and you didn’t get to dance.”
This would be true. The dances were fun. Though dancing with Frey was a lot more fun.
Bess came hustling in the room, eyes wide, expression slightly pale.
“He says we’ve got five minutes,” she announced.
I started softly giggling because I reckoned this was Frey being generous. He didn’t strike me as a man who liked to wait.
A few minutes later, when I’d been perfumed, my gloves smoothed on and the final touches of jewelry added, I heard Esther announce, “I’m done,” and felt her hands move away from me.
“I’ll get the dress,” Bess declared and hustled to the shimmering bolt of blood red satin scattered with jet beads that was resting over the lounge.
“Get yourself up, my princess,” Alyssa ordered and I got up and walked to the mirror.
In short order, they had my ensemble complete and it was so awesome, even if Frey was waiting, I took a moment to examine myself in the mirror and take it all in as Bess did some final spritzing with perfume behind my ears and at my cleavage (yes, royalty didn’t even spritz).
The girls had told me that any member of the aristocracy would be wearing the colors of their House. And it was Mother’s idea that I would not wear the deep red color of the House of Wilde the gold that denoted the crown of Lunwyn or my own color (as Winter Princess) of ice blue.
Instead, I would wear the color of the House of Drakkar, blood red.
And that I was, a blood red satin gown that hugged my body tight from ample cleavage to hips then flowed to my feet with a small train at the back. It was liberally and artistically decorated with hundreds of thousands of polished jet beads, heavy around the bodice but lightening as it skimmed my body and becoming only a sprinkle at the hem.
The gown didn’t have long sleeves but was off the shoulder with short, thin straps that made the bodice a sweep across my exposed cleavage and shoulders.
I had on long, black silk gloves that went up high on my triceps and, over the gloves at each wrist, was a tangle of strand after strand of jet beads. At my neck was a choker of more strands of beads, the same dangling from my ears. My makeup was done in deep colors, charcoal grays and blacks at the eyes and raspberry at the lips and cheeks. And my hair was swept up elegantly but softly in curls and twists.
But the best of all was the headpiece.
Mother had told me when a Drakkar queen sat the throne, she didn’t wear a crown. She wore somewhat
